EU’s Solana to hold talks on Sudan’s Darfur in Addis Ababa, Khartoum

BRUSSELS, Oct 21 (AFP) — European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will hold talks on the crisis in Sudan’s western Darfur region in Addis Ababa with African Union officials, a spokesman for Solana said Thursday.

He will also travel to the Sudanese capital for talks with President Omar el-Beshir on the vast African country’s war-torn western region, the spokesman said.

Solana will travel to AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital on Friday and to Khartoum on Saturday, his spokesman said.

In Addis Ababa, he will hold talks with the head of the African Union’s commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, and with Ethiopian officials.

He was also expected to meet Sudanese political leaders while in Ethiopia, including John Garang, the head of the southern-based rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, which is in the final stages of negotiations to end a 21-year war with the Khartoum government, the spokesman said.

In Khartoum, Solana will meet with Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir and other officials on the situation in the western region of Darfur.

“We are still working on the principle of backing the AU” in its efforts to restore peace to Darfur, where the UN estimates some 70,000 people have been killed and 1.5 million displaced in 20 months of war, Solana’s spokesman said.

The AU on Thursday was trying to revive stalled peace talks in the Nigerian capital between Darfur rebels and the Khartoum government.

The pan-African grouping also announced that it will beef up a truce-monitoring force in Darfur, increasing the number of personnel on the ground from 465 to 3,320.

The EU has pledged to help its African counterpart on a logistics and planning level, and has sent experts in the field to Addis Ababa.